Is Erik Peterson more neo-anarchist than conservative?
/By Rubashov
We used to think there were two kinds of elected conservative leaders: the helmsmen and the engineer. Both are necessary. The first charts a course in broad language and is aspirational. Think of a ship’s captain, all turned-out and resplendent, steering a course.
The second kind, the engineer, gets it done and moves us forward. Their domain is the caucus room – the engine room of government – where the hard business of making the machine turn is done. In a different setting, a famous Marine described them as the people with “instinct in their guts and blood on their boots.”
Of late, we are beginning to see the rise of a third variety of conservative “leader” – the celebrity. He or she most certainly has followers, but there is an underlying purposelessness to this “leader”. Aside from poses and postures, it is all hot air, mere image and gesture, a kind of luftman.
Last week, Assemblyman Erik Peterson strolled into Sussex County to attend the local GOP county committee’s congressional candidates' night. Peterson says the right things and hits the right notes, but mostly he’s against things. His call to repeal the gas tax found its mark and got an oafish grin from fellow Assemblyman Parker Space. But neither Peterson (or Space, for that matter) ever ventured an opinion on what the aftermath of such a move would look like.
They remind us of those reckless conservative “leaders” of yore – the ones who would irresponsibly talk about “blowing up Russia”. We’d think, “Sure boys, launch those nukes… but what then?”
Repealing the gas tax wouldn’t place a break on the rise in gas prices – because that’s all about national politics (President Joe Biden’s war on pipelines and oil companies) and international politics (a war between Russia and Ukraine, with NATO as a silent partner). But it would, almost instantaneously, bankrupt the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) here in New Jersey – and that would throw every county and local budget in the state into the red, necessitating a rise in property taxes to make up for it. What kind of rise? Try $400 to $500 a home. Year after year. And that’s just to pay for the road and bridge maintenance the TTF pays for now.
With the TTF bankrupt, the TTF’s debt would – by law – need to be paid for by New Jersey taxpayers. And then there are all those TAX CUTS that the engineers who fashioned the cog that kept the machine going got in return for a gas tax hike that was half that originally proposed. The Estate Tax would come roaring back, with all it’s devastating consequences to small businesses and family farms. So would taxes on retirees, small businesses, veterans, working people, and consumers. Maybe you are one of them?
Screw it all, say some of these new “conservative” leaders. Let government die, allow the machine to spit and sputter and clunk to its death. So what if the roads become unpassable and if one must say a prayer before crossing a bridge. Too bad for property taxpayers when someone is seriously injured because of an unmaintained street. And too bad for that person, now stuck in a wheelchair, and for their family. Who needs civilization?
To our minds, this is not a conservative position. Dystopia was not what Ronald Reagan was thinking when he described his “shining city on a hill.” Ronald Reagan understood that freedom and liberty rested on maintaining civilization – not destroying it. Taxation is a necessary part of it, but conservatives insist on getting it right, not abolishing it to the point where we are back with open sewers in the streets.
People like Peterson seem to forget that the Dark Ages really did happen. There was Roman civilization and things like running water and baths… and then there was a thousand years of stink. We may have amnesia about a lot of things but let’s not forget that whiskey was once safer than water.
As Governor and President, Ronald Reagan taught us that “user taxes” are the fairest form of taxation. You pay for the roads and bridges you use. Period. That goes for all those out-of-staters too. The roads and bridges they use should not be paid for by the property taxpayers of New Jersey. That should be an easy thing to understand. It shouldn’t take an engineer to explain it to you, but apparently, it does.
President Reagan signed a gas tax increase.
In an upcoming installment, we will discuss Assemblyman Peterson’s role in installing the Highlands Act in its role as slave master to Northwest New Jersey property owners. Look for it soon.
